Vaclav Havel Retires

Playwright Vaclav Havel retires this week after 13 years as President of Czechoslovakia and then – after the 1993 secession of Slovakia – of the Czech Republic. “Of all the world’s leaders in our time, Nelson Mandela and Vaclav Havel have been the most loved and admired. When he took the leadership of the ‘Velvet Revolution’ in 1989, and when he moved into the Castle high above Prague as President of the Republic, it seemed that the Czechs and Slovaks were the luckiest people in Europe. And, for a time, the Czechs and Slovaks thought so, too…”